MMDA installing crash guards in accident-prone areas to lessen collision effects

The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) is putting crash guards at accident-prone areas to mitigate the effects—injuries to people and damage to vehicles—of vehicles crashing into barriers and other installations on the road.

According to Vonne Aquino's report on 24 Oras Weekend, amid the not-uncommon incidence of vehicles plowing into concrete barriers, the MMDA has begun putting crash guards at areas where such accidents happen, often with serious or even fatal results.

On Tandang Sora Avenue, a crash guard can be seen folded into itself and battered after a truck rammed into it, but the truck driver survived.

"Dahil effective nga 'yung crash guard...hindi po siya nasira as compared kung bumangga lang siya sa ordinary poste, or sa concrete post or sa metal post," MMDA Chairperson Romando Artes said.

(Because the crash guard was effective, [the truck] was not damaged to the extent it would have been if it had struck an ordinary concrete or metal post.)

The MMDA started installing crash guards or crash barriers this year, part of the road safety action plan supported by the World Health Organization.

According to the MMDA,445 people are killed in road crashes in Metro Manila every year on average. The aim of these fixtures is to decrease road crash fatalities by at least 35% by 2028.

The first crash guard was installed on the C-5.

"Base sa aming pag-aaral, ito pong crash guards na ito ay makakatulong dahil instead po nasa sasakyan na pupunta yung impact noong pagkabangga, ay naa-absorb po nitong mga crash guards," Artes said.

(Based on our studies, these crash guards absorb [much of] the impact of the crash instead of the vehicle.) — BM, GMA News